City looking to put limits on protests near abortion clinic

(New York Daily News) Every Friday morning since summer, 10 to 20 protesters have been demonstrating outside the Planned Parenthood clinic at 443 Congress St. They recite prayers, carry signs covered with photographs of aborted fetuses and sometimes shout at women entering the clinic.

In response to the concerns of the building’s owners and tenants, including Planned Parenthood, city officials are now looking at legal options for limiting the protests, including setting up a “buffer zone” between the protesters and the clinic doors.

Portland Mayor Michael Brennan said it’s important that the city’s actions are constitutionally defensible because he doesn’t want an expensive legal battle.